Mr. Pipes Comes to America, by Douglas Bond

“This novel is the third volume in the Mr. Pipes series. It provides readers with a wealth of inspiring information regarding the lives of famous American hymn writers. Annie and Drew continue their action-packed adventures as Mr. Pipes visits America and teaches them about great hymns from American history. Grades 7-10.” ~from Goodreads.com

Title: Mr. Pipes Comes to America

Author: Douglas Bond

Genre(s):

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ (three stars)

Romance Content: Mentions nurses loving a character’s British accent, etc, but otherwise none.

Recommended age range: 15+ (see review)

My Review:

I was excited to read the other Mr. Pipes books after I read the first one. After all, I enjoy hymns and history, and when it’s interspersed with a good story, what could be better? 🙂 While this Mr. Pipes book definitely had a lot of interesting history, and the story itself was quite an adventure (and funny at points!), I was disappointed by it.

First of all, the author evidently has a strong Calvinistic bent. There is much talk in the book about Calvinism, and approval of Calvinistic hymn writers, as well as a discussion of the Law (some of which I would agree with but some which seemed misleading/confusing). While at the end there seems to be a clear presentation of the Gospel, I would recommend this book to older readers (perhaps 15+) who know where they stand on the Calvinism vs. Arminianism vs. Biblical Truth issue. If younger readers read this book, I would recommend discussion with parents on this issue. (Please note: I do not intend to start an argument on this issue. However, I would recommend that, if you do not know where you stand on it, you study it out using God’s Word as your Guide.)

Secondly, the author also seems to disapprove of many of the dear hymns I am familiar with. This is a tough issue to sort out, but in the book the outlook seems to be that hymns must speak of sin, grace, and point to God’s attributes, in order to be good. “Mr. Pipes” also espouses the view that many of our modern hymns are bad poetry. Since I am not an expert on poetry, I suppose I am not the one to critique this view, but I will say that these hymns have been a blessing to many people and will continue to do so.

I do agree that modern “praise” songs are generally not appropriate, depending on the type of music used with it. However, I question why the characters sing spirituals, since they do not seem to completely follow the standards put down by “Mr. Pipes”.

Also, one of the main characters does a bit of British “blustering”, or perhaps light British swearing. I am not familiar with British euphemisms, and this did not really bother me; I just wanted to point it out. 😉

While this was a very interesting and exciting book that did have some good history, I cannot fully recommend it, because of the aforementioned reasons. It is not very often that I give a book three stars (at least on this blog), but I felt it was necessary to give you my opinion on this book since I had previously reviewed other Mr. Pipes books. If you do read Mr. Pipes Comes To America, please keep in mind the points I mentioned!

AND! I am pleased to announce that I will be participating in the 2020 Five Fall Favorites blog party!! And, what’s more, I’m inviting you along for the ride! Your invitation is below, and I hope to see you there! 😀